Oranges are such versatile fruits. It can easily be incorporated in many dishes! I had this salad at The Lazy Suzy (Bangalore, India) where they put citrus fruit segments in their salad along with beet root. It tasted heavenly. In your leafy green salads don’t shy away from adding orange segments to it.
You can add orange and basil to your over-night soaked water! That again adds an amazing taste to water. At W hotel in Goa they had added beetle leaf and slices of Malta. I’m not even kidding, it was such a killer combo; I filled up my carry bottle with their flavoured water. Flavoured water needs to be in the refrigerator to avoid turning sour. Its probably twice in a month for me.
Oranges are super good for Vitamin C; you can confirm with your nutritionist or just have and see how your body feels. My energy levels feel much better everytime I have oranges before my workout. ‘Oranges help strengthen and support the liver’—Diane Schwartz.
The hero ‘Peel’
The thick outer peel has XYZ number of uses. Just keep a bag in the freezer and keep adding the left over peels to it everyday.
Zest is a big yes! Just grate some on your salads or soups and whooopp!! Vitamin C booster. The zest from the peel is only from the coloured part. It gets bitter if you get over-enthusiatic and grate it too much. There’s a recipe on the website of ZerowasteChef (P.S. she is queen) about candied orange peels, go check it out. (Link down below).
If you’re doing it right you’re going to be left with a lot of peels. Put it in your compost or use these DIY recipes!
DIY Natural Cleaner recipe:
Collect fresh orange peels (pro tip- I freezer mine to collect enough to immerse in one litre of..
White Vinegar 1 litre (any brand)
Twist- added
4-5 lemon grass twigs
3 pounded cloves (doesn’t have to be fine)
Place the Orange peels, lemon grass and cloves in a jar. Pour the vinegar to immerse completely. To keep it immersed use a small glass bottle. (P.S.—mine is going to be stuck.) Leave it for two weeks on a shelf not receiving direct sunlight. The longer it is fermented the more potent it is. Strain and store the concentrate in a glass bottle, it is strong and can react with metal or plastic. Put the peels in your compost or I read in a post you can grind it and wash your dustbin with it.
Transfer the concentration to a bottle in the ratio 50%water and 50% orange concentrate. Spray it and wipe; (also keeps those ants and mosquitoes away).
Uses- highly recommended for oven, gas tops and bathroom tiles, kitchen tiles. It removes hard stains tried it! Keeps the floors happy and insect free!
Please note—It’s a citric fermented cleaner. It can react with different surfaces like wood or marble. Tip: Patch-test before using on new surfaces.
DIY Potpourri:
Orange Peels cut in strips or unshapely equal sizes
Lemon peels same
Herbs (rosemary, basil)
Cloves
Bay leaf
Cinnamon sticks small
Rose petals dried
Essential oils
Dry the orange peels and lemon peels. Sundries is best or a dehydrator. I just used the oven in really low heat and almost like a preheat and leave it technique. I like to put the extra herbs I got from the market and dry it along with the peels. You don’t want any moisture in it.Nothing should be burnt charcoal black.
Add everything in a glass jar and drip some essential oils of your choice. Close the lid and mix well. Put it aside for the smell to mature into a good mix for a few days. I left mine for a week.
Now leave it in a bowl on your dining or living and watch how it turns everything to magic. DIY potpourri it is. I’m going to share the results on @mycoffeeweather on Instagram.
DIY Scrub:
With homemade scrubs I go all out and creative and this one is my all time favourite—
Orange peels of one orange
Any plant based Mylk/water
Coffee powder 1 spoon or just go by gut feeling
Grind it. That’s it. If you want it coarse add some oats/gram flour separately. You’re going to smell amazing after this.
Dry powdered peel can be stored in the box and used at your own convenience to make a scrub. Patch test again! Dried Orange peels are being used to make Christmas wreaths. I make bath salts too and add some Orange peels to that.
For now go stock up some oranges in your kitchen and share this post with someone who loves oranges 🙏🏽❤️
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